PRIZE July Special 2018 (RLS One-Off Show)
The '''PRIZE July Special 2018 '''was a PRIZE Wrestling League show that took place on the 7th July 2018 at the Empire Stadium in Hamburg, Germany. It featured, as the last special did, several guest performers from promotions Japan MIGHTY! Wrestling, Wrestling upLOUD! and Exhibition Wrestling1, and unattached "freelancers"2. It was preceded by the PRIZE June Special 2018 in Birmingham, and will be followed by a third special at some point in August. Background: * Despite new Elite Champion Pete Hook's apparent challenge of Sidewinder at the post-show of the last event, the attack on the latter by Chris Wayland immediately following this instead set up a Grudge Match between the two. * The Kings of Wrestling's Faisal Khan demanded a rematch with CrossBones, believing his "easy" submission win over them demeaned the newly minted championships. * Mikey Ace confirmed on the 5th July that he would face British Samurai, Foster and Matsuda in an Elimination #1 Contender Match for the Nova Championship at the event. * Nova Champion Dempsey was attacked by challenger Hubris in the middle of issuing an open challenge for this event, establishing Hubris as the face of the rivalry despite the aggressive nature of the attack (due mostly to the disrespect Dempsey was showing the crowd). * Miss Dash (best known for her time in WWE as Emma) was confirmed for a one-off appearance with the promotion at the event on social media, eventually confirming that Grand Champion Angel's refusal to face Faye Spires once again until she "proves" herself gave her an opportunity to "help" Spires. * Freddie Ross (best known for his time in WWE as Darren Young) was confirmed for a one-off appearance with the promotion at the event on social media, with his opponent confirmed to be PRIZE Elite Champion Pete Hook, with the title on the line. Card: Aftermath: * Sidewinder was taken to hospital straight from the match as Wayland angrily demanded to be named winner, arguing that he was the last man standing. * The Kings of Wrestling once again seemed frustrated by the easiness of their win, despite more of a challenge coming from their rivals. They seemed to want the match restarted, hinting at yet another battle between the teams at the next event. * Mikey Ace's win in the Eliminator means he will challenge Dempsey for the Nova Championship at the August special event. * Hubris, however, now returns to Japan MIGHTY! Wrestling following his unsuccessful attempt to win the title. Dempsey's post-match attack means he likely won't be travelling in comfort, however. * Faye Spires' win over Miss Dash, who made it as hard as possible for the rookie performer, should mean she's "proven" herself enough to face Grand Champion Angel in the future. * Pete Hook's show of respect to the vanquished Freddie Ross, raising him to his feet and clapping him on the back, cements Hook's status as a face champion, at least for now. Trivia: * Kenneth Jones, known in UNION Wrestling and in his debut for PRIZE as Grayson Gage, was originally supposed to be fighting Piranha in a rematch from the first event here, but a legal challenge on the use of the Gage gimmick from UW eventually made it impossible for him to even appear under his real name. Piranha was subsequently still confirmed to be appearing at the post-show.4 * Squared Circle Insider rated all of the matches out of five stars, awarding them- in order- 5*, 3.5*, 5*, 4*, 3.5* and 4.5* for an overall rating of 4.25*.5 This, once again, exceeded all expectations, with SCI noting that a decline of .05 stars from the average with one match more on the card was as good as anyone could ask for. * A number of new signings to the promotion were announced at the event, including the already understood deals for Rafe Daniels and Lucy Fer, and a couple of shock ones like Indira (sister of UNION Wrestling star Sitara) and French former Wrestling upLOUD! Champion Loic Vincent. Behind-the-Scenes/Notes: # CAWs from these promotions are, in reality, from my other wrestling games (FPWW and WR3D). # "Freelancers" are made up of CAWs jumping over from UNION Wrestling and new or revived-from-plans CAWs who haven't been signed yet due to the relative newness of the promotion. # The "Eliminator" is a posh name for a Fatal-4-Way Match with Eliminations and FCA rules switched to On in Custom Matches. # In reality, I'm considering reverting Gage to performing under his real name, and this provided a good in-universe reason for doing so, should I decide it has to happen. # This is based on the rating system of the game itself. I may make it a full-time part of the way I do things, giving SCI a bigger role going forward, something possibly comparable to the WON, and Meltzer.